Method of stitching books



H. L. ARNOLD. METHOD OF 'STITGHING BOOKS.

.No. 401,675. Patented Apr. 16, 1889.

UNITE' Starts- ATENT OFFICE.

HORACE L. ARNOLD, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO ROBERT S. IVOODRUFF, TRUSTEE, OF TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF S'l'lTCHlNG BOOKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 401,675, dated April 16, 1889.

Application filed September 1, 1886. erial No. 212,363. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HORACE L. ARNOLD, of Hartford, Connecticut, have invented an Improvement in the Art of Book-Stitching, of which the following description and claim constitute the specification, and which is illustrated by the accompanying sheet of drawings.

This invention consists of a new method or process of stitching together the leaves of a book.

Figure 1 is an enlarged view of two threads, each of which is combined in my present method with five signatures of book-leaves held together by those threads, the spaces between the broken lines being intended to represent cross-sections of those signatures justwithin their backs. Fig. 2 is a section through the back of each of the signatures on a line like that which, as to one of them, is indicated by the dotted line X X of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of one of the threads as looped in my present method, but separate from the signatures.

A is the thread, one or two or more of which are independently used in my present method to unite the several signatures of a book. Its longitudinal reaches lie within the creases of the several signatures, while its diagonal reaches and its lateral reaches are on the outside of the backs of the signatures.

The method of stitching is as follows: I-Ioles being first, preferably, punched or cut through the backs of the signatures of leaves wherever thread is to be passed through them, the thread A is brought from the left of Fig. 1, and is carried through the back of the' first signature, from the outside thereof, at the lower hole therein, in such a manner as to form the loop B. That loop is then carried upward along the inner crease of the signature till the next hole is reached, when it is brought through the hole to the back of the signature, and thence is brought downward on the outside in a diagonal direction till its end is over the lower hole in the second signature, in the position shown in Fig. 1. Then another portion of the thread A is brought from the left, and is carried through the end of the loop B and through the lower hole in the second signature in such a manner as to form the loop C. That loop is then carried upward along the inner crease of the second signature till the next hole is reached, when it is brought through that hole to the back of that signature, and thence is brought downward, in a diagonal direct-ion, till its end is over the lower hole in the third signature, in the position shown in Fig. 1. Thus the process continues till any desired number of signatures of leaves are united.

The upper thread A is managed precisely like the lower one and simultaneously therewith, and any desired number of such single threads may simultaneously be stitched in the same manner across different portions of the back of a series of signatures of leaves.

A parchment strip, D, may be pasted, or otherwise attached, to the backs of the signa- 7o tures between the different threads A, as shown in Fig. 1, ora similar strip may be fastened to the backs of the signatures by being inclosed under the diagonal reaches of the thread A, and in the latter case such a strip would, preferably, be as wide as the space between the two lateral series of holes through which the thread A is carried and brought, respectively.

In order to plainly indicate the course of the thread, less tension is indicated in the drawings than is proper in actual practice of the invention, and in actual practice that tension may be regulated to the requirements of particular cases.

The thread A may be positively prevented from tearing through the edges of the holes in the signatures through which it passes by means of two cross-threads, like the thread E shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings of my c application, Serial No. 206,400, filed June 28, 1886, for a patent for another improvement in the art of book-stitching; butI do not consider that expedient necessary to the utility of this invention. a

This invention may be performed and made by hand, and I hope hereafter to perfect a machine for more rapidly performing the described process, and more cheaply producing the described result.

I claim as my invention-- The method of stitching together a series of signatures, which consists in carrying a loop of a thread through the back of one signature from the outside thereof, and then bringing it out through the same back at another place, and then carrying another loop of that thread through the first loop thereof and then through the back of another signature from the outside, and then bringing it out through the same back in another place,

andthen repeating the operation, if necessary, IO

until all the signatures in the series are stitched together, all substantially as described.

Hartford, Connecticut, July 29, 1886.

HORACE L. ARNOLD. WVitnesses:

ALBERT H. WALKER, LUCIUS W. BARTLETT. 

